1840’s Home Dismantled

UPDATE: 9 April 2018

Dismantled by Barnwood Builders for it’s log cabin core. See the schedule of the programs here.

Sometime between last spring and last week, this historic Noblit-Lytle home was dismantled. Historical markers have vanished in the area in the last decade as well. This is the site of the Battle of Sugar Creek, the last stand of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, in the Volunteer State.

Inscription. “Thomas H. Noblit (1812-1899), who served the community as justice of the peace, doctor, merchant, and farmer, built this log dogtrot farmhouse in the 1840s. The Civil War battle at Sugar Creek occurred nearby in December 1864. In the 1890s, his son-in-law, William Franklin “Will” Lytle (1858-1942), renovated the house in the Queen Anne style. Will’s daughter, Mary Will Lytle (1897-1990), was among Tennessee’s first women dentists.” …read more

Honoring the United States Colored Infantry (U.S.C.I.)

The Civil War Monuments issue should take 180º turn. It’s time to honor the contributions of the 13th USCT in the Battle of Nashville. Fort Negley Park would be ideal for it’s location. The fort was constructed by African Americans, including the USCT. The grounds around the fort were “contraband camps” of Black refugees from around the region. Some may still be buried there.

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The 13th USCT

Five color bearers of the 13th U.S.C.I. — carrying a flag with its origin: “Presented by the Colored Ladies of Murfreesboro” — were shot down before their banner was captured. The regiment lost 40 percent of its men, the highest casualty rate of the battle of Nashville.

The 13th U.S.C.T. was comprised of 20 officers and 556 men, most of whom had been enslaved in Tennessee. Ordered to assault Peach Orchard Hill during the battle, after many white Union regiments had failed, the 13th U.S.C.T. was slaughtered by the Confederate troops defending the hill. Yet in undertaking this task these freed slaves, untried in fierce combat, won in their deaths the admiration of friend and foe alike…read more

Defending Fort Negley Park

Lt. Col. David Acuff, U.S. Army (ret.)

“This situation keeps causing an image to pop into my mind. It is Dec. 15, 1864, and you are at one of the Redoubts, alone. Tens of thousands of property developers and city planners are formed up and advancing toward you. You wait for them with your musket. You know that the outcome doesn’t matter. You “will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved.” (General Order #1)”

We are rattling the cages of the back-room-deal power brokers in Nashville who thought giving away public and historic park land worth $30million for about $1million might go without notice (or that we probably can’t put a price on the history of this inland fort).

Just like the fight to save Radnor Lake and the Ryman – there comes a time when thinking people sit up and say “this makes no sense” — why, as so many other Nashville mayors did, are we not adding to and protecting our city land instead of giving it away to private developers?

So, while the challenge to this award is being worked through in a formal complaint process with the city, our collective efforts are shining a light on the importance of this issue to Nashville and our region.

Please read expert opinions from Ridley Wills II, David Ewing, the Walker Collaborative, The National Civil War Trust and more at the link below.

Tomorrow we will share information on the Legal Defense Fund which has been set up to fight this.